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Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Last
weekend was held at Lake Bagsværd (Copenhague,
Denmark) the
Marathon World Cup 2012, as a prelude for the Marathon World Championships that
will take place at the same spot next year 2013, getting the relay from Rome
2012. And once again, Spain
had a strong presence in the final standings, claiming gold in both main
categories, the senior Men K1 and K2, through
Iván Alonso and the couple Walter Bouzán-Álvaro Fiuza, current world champions
for two years in a row. But despite some absences, like South Africa or Hungary, the battle was hard, with
many tight endings along the weekend.

On the right, Morten Minde (NOR) leads a crowded group at Lake Bagsværd

With an
early start on Saturday, the juniors already gave the crowd a nice race. In the
K1 Men, seven boats were in a close fight for the whole race, but finally
finished with a sprint between the four on the lead and medals went to Casper
Pretzmann (DEN), gold; Miguel Llorens (ESP), silver; and Hynek Chroust (CZE),
bronze. In the Women race, another local victory in a tight finish, with Amalie
Thomsen (DEN) claiming gold, Amy Ward (GBR) went for silver and Carolina
Massagues (ESP) took bronze.

After the
juniors it was turn for the canoeists. In a pretty windy day, some had
troubles, most of all at turns and the portage entry, where wind blowed
sidewards. Then, current U23 world champion, Spanish Manuel Garrido, fell in
the water and had to give up, while Nuno Barros (POR) showed a strong
performance that finally gave him a comfortable gold medal, followed by
Matthias Erbhardt (GER) in silver and Jakub Brezina (CZE) in bronze.

Good
superiority also at the Senior Women K1 for young Italian promise Stefania
Cicali, who took gold with a minute and a half over the local Birgit
Pontoppidan (DEN), taking silver ahead of another Italian taking bronze, Anna
Alberti.

It was then
time for the main dish on Saturday, the Senior Men K1. Strong contestants at
the starting line in a fresh and windy afternoon. With seven and a half laps
ahead, the start was frenzy from Neil Fleming (IRL) and Luca Piemonte (ITA).
Behind them, the fight was hard looking for the good wash and those losing it
tried to open wide to clear water. That made the first lap very quickly, but
actually, coming back to the first portage, a large bunch of 13 boats was
established. Even though, he first one having troubles to keep the pace and
always looking like losing contact was local veteran star Rene Olsen, who
finally showed everybody at the venue how important it is to keep mind cold in
such a long race.

Lap after
lap, the group was losing components, even being a six K1 group who looked
solid to push away, but they were always caught up again when returning down
the lap. Too many strong people to let the things go so easy. Definitely, Neil
Fleming (IRL), Iván Alonso (ESP), Morten Minde (NOR) and Borja Estomba (ESP)
looked fit, turning each other on the lead, but paddlers like Tim Pendle (GBR),
Lars Hjemdal (NOR), Quentin Urban (FRA) or Luca Piemonte and Matteo Graziani
(ITA) were very consistant chasing again the wash. And so he was Rene Olsen,
always suffering behind, but never losing more than 50 metres.

It was then
when at the sixth portage, Fleming and Alonso made a quick race on the grass,
showing that they didn’t want so many people around facing the finish line. And
entering the water again, drama showed up for Morten Minde and Borja Estomba.
They looked strong enough as a part of the four boat leading group, but Minde
fell in the water and estomba smashed the rudder against the hull, starting to
paddle in circles. Precious time that both lost and that allowed the
prosecutors to arrive and start paddling before they could do anything about
it. And surprisingly, two kayaks were now in the chase of the leaders: Rene
Olsen and the young Lars Hjemdal, who managed to overpass in the portage the
tired Italians, Urban, Pendle, Odvarko…

That way,
two neck to neck sprints were going to decide the medals. And Ivan Alonso (ESP)
showed a strong pace in the last 500 metres, where a visibly tired Neil Fleming
(IRL) could not even make a try to pass the Spaniard. Gold for Alonso, silver
for Fleming and a hundred metres behind Rene Olsen (DEN) managed to claim
bronze and let Lars Hjemdal (NOR) out of the podium after a superb race.

In a second
part of the chronicle you may be able to read about Day 2, with all the doubles
races.